Casualty of War
by AllNatrlSnapple
Summary: Vulpes should have known, she would only end up a casualty of war or collateral damage as the NCR dogs would have refered to her as. Perhaps she had indeed been much more to him than just another victim. Short vingette-like one shot thingy.


**This is my first fan fiction, soooo I'm sorry if it quite literally sucks. ^^" It was a spontaneous thing. It was originally gonna be a chapter story but I felt silly making 1 paragraph chapters. **

** The main idea is (since I guess i didn't really explain it in this story) is that a Gun Runners' gunsmith was once kidnapped by Vulpes and interrogated for information regarding the Gun Runners dealings with the NCR. Eventually she breaks and tells him what she knows. Then throughout the next several months he would occassionally run into her when he came to Freeside or New Vegas for business. They became infatuated with eachother and had a brief romance until the battle of Hoover Dam. When the Legion was victorious and Caesar was dead, the Legate ordered Vulpes to kill his lover. The Legate had known of Vulpes' relationship with the woman. He had known because of the way he reacted when she was mentioned. And of course Vulpes would carry out his orders without question, as he believes she's tainted him and deterred him from his duty to Caesar. **

**I hope thats clear enough and understandable. ._.**

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><p>If there was anything she needed, craved it was the feel of his skin against hers. She often relished in the sigh of him struggling to maintain the moral interpretive to which he had become accustomed. He would often lose himself in the simplest of profligate gratifications, not being able to form coherent thought or form any words that didn't instantly turn to moans of pleasure.<p>

She would arch against him and her mouth would fall open in a silent scream as he breathed her name against her soft skin in release. They would reach for each other, holding the other as close as humanly possible, searching for a comfort that no longer existed in this world.

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><p>The wasteland was dead; the Legion had killed it. All of its occupants were either dead or in hiding for fear of meeting the same fate. Not even the howl of a coyote or the buzzing of a cazadors wings remained. They would continue to wreak havoc on this world; destroying all who opposed them and enslaving those who surrendered. Their twisted notion of humanity becoming a harsh reality.<p>

The earth crumbled beneath her feet as harsh chains drug her to the inevitable death that awaited her. They had taken over; destroyed everything. Innocent families had been slaughtered, homes burned to the ground, the occupants locked inside to suffer horrific deaths. Smoke billowed ominously from every direction.

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><p>She stared into the eyes of the man who had so easily betrayed her.<p>

She felt no hatred, no regret for what had occurred between them. She did however, feel remorse for him. He had found someone to love him. Someone he could have shared a life with- No…that would have always been impossible. They could have never truly had a life together. They never could have brought a family into this world, or even been together without having to remain in hiding. The Legion would never have accepted her as his wife. But at least they were happy for the brief time they had together. Now, he would carry out the Legates orders and destroy any ties that bonded him to the profligate world.

He stared into her eyes. The light he had come to know remained and still reflected back at him with perverse audacity. She held no fear as she sat on her knees before him in the small tent. She returned his icy stare with the same intensity as he. But she did not fight against him. She simply remained silent, asking him one simple question with her eyes. _Why? _

She cared not for saving her own life, or the lives of those around her. She knew their fate was inevitable.; the same as her own.

He would relinquish his happiness in the name of Caesar. The same as he did whenever he decimated an entire city. He would feel nothing when she was gone. He had never truly felt anything to begin with. _Right…? _She was just another profligate whore…he had to believe that.

The false notions that the Legion had placed into his mind, the notions he had been raised to unquestioningly obey and believe in, would eventually destroy him. He was willing to murder the person he cared for, for the 'glory' of Caesar. She felt the pain creep its way into her chest and tears threatened to fall. She would not cry for herself, but for him.

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><p>He had become weak. He had let this woman infatuate him, posses him. He had let her taint his body with her dissolute affection. He had allowed it to seep into his mind and destroy him from the inside out. And now he would destroy her with a ferocity and brutality that would make even the son of Mars tremble with fear. He would erase the immoral, debilitating thoughts she placed into his mind. She would become nothing more than a ghost; buried beneath the sand of the Mojave to rot just like all the other corrupt, profligate scum.<p>

He ordered his fellow legionaries to leave the tent. He would not permit the other men to watch the slow death that he would bestow upon this dissolute woman. That was a pleasure he reserved only for himself.

He would enjoy watching the life fade from her eyes as she breathed her last breath.

His hand snaked around her throat. Dust coated her hair and skin. She was sunburnt from the torturous march she had made from Freeside. Her body had grown thin and weak from malnutrition. He was surprised she had survived at all. His grip tightened and hissed into her ear. He was amused at the way her eyes grew wide with terror as he told her how she would die. He would make her suffer until she was begging death to take her.

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><p>He watched her as she lay in a pool of blood at his feet. The crimson liquid stained his hands and armor. She struggled to gasp for one last breath as the light slowly faded from her eyes. The deep cuts on her body continuing to seep her life giving fluid. He had made the cuts slowly, relishing in her screams of pain and anguish. Now he stood watching as she slowly bled out.<p>

The coppery smell of her blood hung in the air. She reached for him one last time, struggling to form words before her body stilled and her breathing ceased, her eyes showing the horror of the torturous death she had suffered at Vulpes' hands.

As he stared at her body, he felt no regret; no remorse for what he had done. But as the adrenaline pumping through his body slowed, for the first time, he felt truly alone. Only the sound of his breathing remained. He had stolen one more innocent life.

As he walked from the tent, coldness invaded his chest and he could have sworn he heard her voice. The presence seemed to wrap around his very soul.

Without ever looking back, he continued his daily routines only to be haunted by her smile. And every so often, when he was alone, Vulpes would feel something soft brush his skin. Or he would feel warm breath on his ear and hear her whispering words of comfort and forgiveness. He would push the thoughts from his mind, always telling himself she was just another casualty of war.

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><p><strong>._. I'm sorry if this was horrible and I wasted your time. <strong>


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